1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to image recognition and more specifically to matching pictures of faces in a contacts list.
2. Introduction
Any given person in modern society can be acquaintances with hundreds or even thousands of other people. While many acquaintances are memorable, the sheer number of familiar faces defies memorization of every name of every acquaintance. Many times, people see someone else and recognize them as a familiar face but cannot recall the context of the familiarity or the person's name. Sometimes people feel socially awkward when they must ask the familiar person's name is or how they know each other. On a related note, a person can instantly recognize each familiar face in a group picture or a series of pictures, such as a group picture or a family photo album. However, this information is difficult and time consuming to convert to a usable form. A user must manually identify each person in a photograph and enter data for each. This problem is further compounded by fading memories. Especially with old pictures, the face may be familiar without any recollection of a name. Because of the barriers of the time, effort, and fading memory, very few people archive this valuable source of historical information. These needs and problems are combined with pervasively available portable devices with cameras, such as Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs), smartphones, and regular cell phones. Accordingly, what is needed in the art is an improved way to recognize familiar faces.